The conventional control practice for an electric vehicle run from batteries or a “plug-in hybrid” vehicle has been similar to those of other battery-operated mobile devices. That is, the operator may plug the device into an electrical outlet connected to a utility's electrical power grid (“electric power grid”) and the device's charger immediately charges it at the maximum rate consistent with care of the batteries. The charge rate may simply be a result of the current limit on the charger electronics and the varying internal resistance of the battery without adding components for charge rate control. Alternatively, the charger may contain explicit logic or components to take best care of the battery. In either case, the status and needs of the electric power grid are not considered.